Mokinių, turinčių specialiųjų poreikių, iššūkiai integruoto ugdymo paradigmai Lietuvoje
Challenges to the paradigm of the integrated education of children with special needs in Lithuania

Summary/Abstract: State Education Strategy for the Year 2003–2012 of the Republic of Lithuania (2003) highlights three priority areas: 1) eSociety, 2) secure society, 3) competitive economy. By announcing the above-mentioned strategy, the State obligates education to assist the State in implementing the strategic goals. The following situation analysis is based on two of them: the third one, namely, ‘to nurture a solidary civic society’, and the eight one, namely, ‘to reduce social separation and poverty in essence’. According to the data of municipalities, there were 580 259 pupils in Lithuania in the school year 2005–2006. 10 per cent of the pupils (58 025) have special needs of varied degree. 15 667 of them, which makes 2,7 per cent of the total number of Lithuanian pupils, have disabilities that provide big or very big special needs. According to the data of the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science, 90,4 percent of pupils with special needs attend ordinary secondary schools with full or partial integration applied. The paradigm of integrated education defines a complex socio-pedagogical phenomenon including interpersonal relationships between the educators and the educated, educational content and educational environment; therefore, the whole educational reality must be considered when talking about the education quality of heterogeneous groups. Some scientific research carried out in Lithuania that look into the quality of the organization of integrated education, cause worry and concern. Heterogeneous communities with normally developing pupils and those with special needs learning together create favourable conditions to ground interpersonal relationships on the solidarity and responsibility of their members. One’s otherness is perceived as uniqueness in such communities, able to enrich the entire community with new experience [2; 30]. On the other hand, it has been proved that favourable communal relationships in heterogeneous groups of children are formed with difficulty if pedagogical guidance is missing [7]. The results of a research [1] prove that secondary school teachers have acquired the education policy of Europe and other democratic states, which accepts pupils with special needs to the school community. However, a worrying phenomenon has come to light, namely, the unawareness of the pedagogues of how to act in the changed educational reality. Children with special needs experience isolation in common educational space. It shows the professional helplessness of the teachers and their inability to control the pupils’ relationships and combine them harmonically. The researchers claim the teachers admit that educational situation can be improved but there is a lack of skill of creating a climate of solidarity...

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